Top five percent of AT&T smartphone usage and Bandwidth throttling

[SpaceKitty]

I got my throttling notice this morning at 2090MB of data usage with 6 days left in my billing cycle. It's the first notice, so I haven't been throttled yet: my 3G speeds are still good based on Speedtest.net. I'm in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (AT&T headquarters), and I would have expected the top 5% to be using more than 2gb in such a large market.

Hmmm, if I switch to the 3gb plan and pay the same amount as for my unlimited plan, they won't throttle the abusive 3gb?

That's correct, you are paying of a specified amount of data so it can not be throttled for using it.

 

[lordofthereef]

That's correct, you are paying of a specified amount of data so it can not be throttled for using it.

I think Pipper's statement was tongue in cheek. How is 3GB at $30/mo completely fine, yet going over 2GB on a $30/mo unlimited plan all of the sudden considered abusive? That is a clear double standard.

 

[SpaceKitty]

I think Pipper's statement was tongue in cheek. How is 3GB at $30/mo completely fine, yet going over 2GB on a $30/mo unlimited plan all of the sudden considered abusive? That is a clear double standard.

The only reason that I can come up with is that now AT&T has a chance to charge extra for overages. There people out there who will without a doubt go over and have to pay an extra $10 for a GB of data.

 

[lordofthereef]

The only reason that I can come up with is that now AT&T has a chance to charge extra for overages. There people out there who will without a doubt go over and have to pay an extra $10 for a GB of data.

Oh, of course. It's just that all of the sudden their rational for throttling around the 2GB mark starts to crumble being that they are offering 3GB for the same price. You can't say we are throttling the abusers while essentially pointing out that it isn't abuse. Or, well, they certainly can, but it makes them look pretty bad.

 

[cyks]

Oh, of course. It's just that all of the sudden their rational for throttling around the 2GB mark starts to crumble being that they are offering 3GB for the same price. You can't say we are throttling the abusers while essentially pointing out that it isn't abuse. Or, well, they certainly can, but it makes them look pretty bad.

They'll simply say that the top 5% throttling is computer automated and since the 3GB hasn't been available for a month and, consequently, people aren't using that much yet, the 2GB mark continues to hold. As more people move up to the 3GB tier and begin using that much, the throttle point *may* increase to show that.

Everything about this makes them look bad, but it's not enough people being effected and their "we're only targeting the abusers in order to help the masses" swing on things will keep them in a positive light.

 

[aristobrat]

This an interesting quote from today:

After blasting the Federal Communication Commission for “picking winners and losers” in the wireless industry by scrutinizing every deal, Stephenson claimed AT&T is now in a mobile capacity-constrained environment which has forced it to raise prices and manage connection speeds (aka throttle) for its highest volume subscribers.

http://gigaom.com/broadband/att-punishes-its-customers-for-t-mo-mergers-failure/

So folks that call the FCC and complain are in essence making AT&T's point for them.

 

[chakraj]

The fact is ATT has oversold their network, how is that the end users fault?

Imagine if a Movie theater just sold as many tickets as they wanted without regard for the amount of actual seats. Then when people started to say "hey I want my money back because there are no seats" The movie theater said, Oh its not our fault, its the seat abusers who sit in the seat for the whole movie.

If they can not handle the traffic they have, then they need to stop signing people up until they build the network to a workable capacity.

Instead they are walking around the theater, kicking people out of their seats so others can sit down.

 

[Wide opeN]

The fact is ATT has oversold their network, how is that the end users fault?

Imagine if a Movie theater just sold as many tickets as they wanted without regard for the amount of actual seats. Then when people started to say "hey I want my money back because there are no seats" The movie theater said, Oh its not our fault, its the seat abusers who sit in the seat for the whole movie.

If they can not handle the traffic they have, then they need to stop signing people up until they build the network to a workable capacity.

Instead they are walking around the theater, kicking people out of their seats so others can sit down.

Beautiful!!!

 

[rgarjr]

They make them stand outside with the door partially opened (throttled) to see the movie.

 

[Vaughn Logan]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

Who else feels that they should not have upgraded to the iPhone 4S with these outrageously low bandwidth speeds from AT&T?

 

[cyks]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

Who else feels that they should not have upgraded to the iPhone 4S with these outrageously low bandwidth speeds from AT&T?

..because there's no way for anyone to use 2GB of data with an iPhone 4 (or even a non-smartphone).

What does upgrading a phone, and still being able to use it fully on WiFi, have to do with data speeds?

 

[chakraj]

Well acording to ATT abusive only means the catagory you are in. You see using over 2gigs in a certain catagory, lets call them A. = Network abuse. While using 3gigs in another catagory, lets call them catagory B. = Normal use.

Now both of these catagories pay the exact same amount of money, so its not the amount they pay?

So the actual diferentiating factor for if you are a network hog, bandwidth abuser is not in fact the amount of data you use, but the type of account you have.

They are skating a fine line here.

 

[Pipper99]

The fact is ATT has oversold their network, how is that the end users fault?

Imagine if a Movie theater just sold as many tickets as they wanted without regard for the amount of actual seats. Then when people started to say "hey I want my money back because there are no seats" The movie theater said, Oh its not our fault, its the seat abusers who sit in the seat for the whole movie.

If they can not handle the traffic they have, then they need to stop signing people up until they build the network to a workable capacity.

Instead they are walking around the theater, kicking people out of their seats so others can sit down.

I love the concept of "seat abusers".

 

[cyks]

Well acording to ATT abusive only means the catagory you are in. You see using over 2gigs in a certain catagory, lets call them A. = Network abuse. While using 3gigs in another catagory, lets call them catagory B. = Normal use.

Now both of these catagories pay the exact same amount of money, so its not the amount they pay?

So the actual diferentiating factor for if you are a network hog, bandwidth abuser is not in fact the amount of data you use, but the type of account you have.

They are skating a fine line here.

Where's the fine line? They stated 6 months ago that they would throttle the top 5% of (unlimited) users and if they didn't want to be throttled, they were welcome to join any of the tier plans AT&T offers (or leave). That's what they continue to do.

They could offer 100GB plans for only $5, but, so long as the average user was using under 2GB, that's where those with an unlimited plan would continue to be throttled.

Funny how quick those with an Unlimited plan are to call 'fairness' on this now that it's not in their favor, but had no problem paying less for data than everyone else for years.

 

[chakraj]

Where's the fine line? They stated 6 months ago that they would throttle the top 5% of (unlimited) users and if they didn't want to be throttled, they were welcome to join any of the tier plans AT&T offers (or leave). That's what they continue to do.

They could offer 100GB plans for only $5, but, so long as the average user was using under 2GB, that's where those with an unlimited plan would continue to be throttled.

Funny how quick those with an Unlimited plan are to call 'fairness' on this now that it's not in their favor, but had no problem paying less for data than everyone else for years.

First Your last statement is incorrect, When I was with ATT (I fired them last month) for the past five years up until this year I paid for their most expensive data plan (aside from a tethering plan) Unlimited was their highest priced plan while it was out. So your "had no problem paying less" statement is out the window.

Secondly I am to take it by your statment that being and calling for "fairness" in any way or situation is not important to you, then I would also conclude the truth has no meaning or value to you. So I can then deduce that everything you say is most likely untrue since it has no value to be so.

 

[iphone1105]

Based on this thread, and some replies I'd love to know the average age of the people posting....me thinks lots o' kiddies...

Either way, my girl and I both used over 4gb each this month on our phones, and no notice.

I'll also assume some of you just make ***** up too....

 

[cyks]

First Your last statement is incorrect, When I was with ATT (I fired them last month) for the past five years up until this year I paid for their most expensive data plan (aside from a tethering plan) Unlimited was their highest priced plan while it was out. So your "had no problem paying less" statement is out the window.

Secondly I am to take it by your statment that being and calling for "fairness" in any way or situation is not important to you, then I would also conclude the truth has no meaning or value to you. So I can then deduce that everything you say is most likely untrue since it has no value to be so.

Just because you had the most expensive data plan does not mean you paid the most for data. For the vast majority of unlimited users, you paid much lower rates per GB than those in the tiers.

I never said anything about fairness being important or not. I merely pointed out that those complaining that what they don't think is fair now were often the ones unfairly using it to their advantage in the past.

 

[emachine87]

I take offense good sir! I use around 8gb a month but I would have to really try to get that high on average it's 5gb. There's is no way AT&T will take away my unlimited plan! If it comes down to it I'll be the last to leav, it's been six days in cycle and I used 1gb and that's with normal data usage.

 

[Pipper99]

Based on this thread, and some replies I'd love to know the average age of the people posting....me thinks lots o' kiddies...

Either way, my girl and I both used over 4gb each this month on our phones, and no notice.

I'll also assume some of you just make ***** up too....

And we'll assume the same of you, kind sir.

 

[theman510]

I've reach the end of my rope and I don't know what I can do anymore. I discuss my data usage in this thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/14134028/)

That was my last billing cycle where I was throttled down to download speeds of .07mbps. Unusable. This month I decided to closely monitor my data usage. I turned off iCloud and photostream, and turn off data whenever I'm using wifi. I turned off the sending info to apple setting.

I checked my account on ATT.com today and noticed that yesterday morning at 7:58 am while driving to work I somehow used 247 MB. Don't ask me how, I'm not steaming anything and my phone is either locked or playing music from the iPod app. I could probably stream Netflix for 5 hours and not use that much data.

I called AT&T to let them know (AGAIN) and got bumped up to a "Data manager" who was incredibly b*tchy and rude. She said there must be some app that's using that much data to update. I don't have any apps that are even that size so I don't see how this could possibly be the case. I tried to talk with her about how that can't really be the case and she just kept repeating that there must be some app using the data blah blah. I've gone to apple with this last month after failing with AT&T and at first they did a DFU restore and we restored the phone as new, then it kept happening so I went back they replaced my phone. AT&T said it must be a hardware or software issue last month, but this month it must be an app that's doing this. I can't get a straight answer from them and they just keep passing the ball to say it's Apple's problem.

I really don't know what to do. I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited plan and don't really want to change that. Say I change my plan to the 3GB's at the same $30/month. What's to say this won't keep happening and I'll be over that 3GB's in 10 days then get charged an extra $10 for each additional GB?!

I can't think of any apps I've downloaded in the past few months that would result in this change and I can't live with another 2/3 of my billing cycle being throttled down to unusable speeds.

Is anybody else having this issue and is there any way at all I can do something to resolve it??? PLEASE (and sorry for the long rant but I'm fresh off the phone with AT&T and I'm pissed)

 

[chreesto]

Based on this thread, and some replies I'd love to know the average age of the people posting....me thinks lots o' kiddies...

Either way, my girl and I both used over 4gb each this month on our phones, and no notice.

I'll also assume some of you just make ***** up too....

Seriously? Well that makes perfect sense then, if it doesn't happen to you it must not be happening to anyone. I've been in hundreds of thunderstorms and never been hit by lightning, it's a myth. I've never been pulled over by the police, I don't believe they exist.
I'm very interested in this theory of yours. So "kiddies" are getting online to post fake information about their data usage? I think you're a bit out of touch. When "kiddies" get online they play games and watch porn.

 

[chakraj]

I've reach the end of my rope and I don't know what I can do anymore. I discuss my data usage in this thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/14134028/)

That was my last billing cycle where I was throttled down to download speeds of .07mbps. Unusable. This month I decided to closely monitor my data usage. I turned off iCloud and photostream, and turn off data whenever I'm using wifi. I turned off the sending info to apple setting.

I checked my account on ATT.com today and noticed that yesterday morning at 7:58 am while driving to work I somehow used 247 MB. Don't ask me how, I'm not steaming anything and my phone is either locked or playing music from the iPod app. I could probably stream Netflix for 5 hours and not use that much data.

I called AT&T to let them know (AGAIN) and got bumped up to a "Data manager" who was incredibly b*tchy and rude. She said there must be some app that's using that much data to update. I don't have any apps that are even that size so I don't see how this could possibly be the case. I tried to talk with her about how that can't really be the case and she just kept repeating that there must be some app using the data blah blah. I've gone to apple with this last month after failing with AT&T and at first they did a DFU restore and we restored the phone as new, then it kept happening so I went back they replaced my phone. AT&T said it must be a hardware or software issue last month, but this month it must be an app that's doing this. I can't get a straight answer from them and they just keep passing the ball to say it's Apple's problem.

I really don't know what to do. I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited plan and don't really want to change that. Say I change my plan to the 3GB's at the same $30/month. What's to say this won't keep happening and I'll be over that 3GB's in 10 days then get charged an extra $10 for each additional GB?!

I can't think of any apps I've downloaded in the past few months that would result in this change and I can't live with another 2/3 of my billing cycle being throttled down to unusable speeds.

Is anybody else having this issue and is there any way at all I can do something to resolve it??? PLEASE (and sorry for the long rant but I'm fresh off the phone with AT&T and I'm pissed)

There are threads on here about phantom dataq usage, That is one of the main issues, if the phone can do data in the background, like sending apple its stats (did you dis engage that option in settings?) and google wants their stats, and Vlingo wants their stats, and netflix wants their stats and so on and so on. Now each of these companies stats include, your IMEI, your location data, your contact list, all of the titles in your itunes list... Plus you can not opt out of a lot of these. Google plus is terrible at this sending data all day long, Faebook does the same.

So, you pay for the data, they use the data without your concent and with no option to turn it off. That sounds fair.

 

[theman510]

There are threads on here about phantom dataq usage, That is one of the main issues, if the phone can do data in the background, like sending apple its stats (did you dis engage that option in settings?) and google wants their stats, and Vlingo wants their stats, and netflix wants their stats and so on and so on. Now each of these companies stats include, your IMEI, your location data, your contact list, all of the titles in your itunes list... Plus you can not opt out of a lot of these. Google plus is terrible at this sending data all day long, Faebook does the same.

So, you pay for the data, they use the data without your concent and with no option to turn it off. That sounds fair.

Yes, I have send data to apple turned off. I still can't comprehend how I'm sending 200-500 MB per day almost. I'm baffled and screwed by the sound of it since there's nothing I can do that I can think of

 

[diamond.g]

Yes, I have send data to apple turned off. I still can't comprehend how I'm sending 200-500 MB per day almost. I'm baffled and screwed by the sound of it since there's nothing I can do that I can think of

You could try turning off cellular data for a day to see if it really is the phone, or just the towers being incorrect.

 

[theman510]

You could try turning off cellular data for a day to see if it really is the phone, or just the towers being incorrect.

I could try this on a weekend maybe but I use the phone for work emails and stuff so I can't do that during the week.